DEATH FROM A DISTANCE
US, 1935, 68 minutes, Black and white.
Russell Hopton, Lola Elaine, George Marion Sr, Lee Kolmar.
Directed by Frank R.Strayer.
This is one of those murder mysteries, and death in a locked room. However, it is that much more interesting because it takes place in a planetarium (with information given this is one of the few planetarium is in the US at the time).
The professor called Einfeld (who looks and sounds like something of a parody of Albert Einstein) is giving a lecture on the stars. One of the audience is shot – and turns out to be a scientist with a very shady background. Everybody is asked to stay in the room while the police investigate.
The central character is a breezy policeman, interacting in screwball comedy fashion with a rather forward newspaper reporter played by Lola Lane.
There are various interviews, the discovery that the gun was hidden in the technical apparatus for the slides to be shown on the roof of the planetarium. Various motivations are revealed when the scientist who had been murdered had done illegal experiments and had to withdraw and change his name.
Some information is given about the lecturer and his knowledge of the murdered man – and that he could be the murderer.
However, as with some of the Agatha Christie novels, a character who is generally overlooked turns out to be the villain. In this case, it is the caretaker who is able to wander around and be taken for granted. It turns out that he set up the gun, gave evidence incriminating the lecturer, then attempted to kill him as a possible witness, and had a strong grudge against the murdered man for experimenting on his son.
There is a clever twist when the lecturer is persuaded (twice) to pretend that he has been shot, that he has killed himself, getting verification from the coroner, the test played in front of the press and of the witnesses – and the real killer unmasked.
The film is directed by Frank R. Strayer, director of many similar films during the 1930s but moving, in the late 1940s to making films with religious themes including The Pilgrimage Play.
